Discover How Senior Mediation Can Help End Conflicts Over Care

Mature couple getting financial advice from consultant at home
** Note: Shallow depth of field

Your dad wants to age at home. Your siblings all agree that’s the best plan. That’s where your agreements end, however. You feel daily home care services are necessary, but your brother feels that your dad’s fine on his own and that you shouldn’t be wasting money on caregivers. You cannot be in the same room without feeling a level of irritation. What do you do?

What Can a Senior Mediator Help With?Senior mediation is a helpful way to end conflicts and have an unbiased advocate look at your dad’s situation and listen to everyone’s concerns. The mediator does not take sides. Instead, it’s the mediator’s role to guide families through disputes and come up with solutions that make everyone happy.

Senior mediators help with many situations regarding senior citizens and their families. If your dad wants to age at home, a senior mediator can help families navigate how to divvy up caregiving duties or how to decide how often caregivers should come to provide home care services. A mediator can help families narrow down the aspects of care their parent needs.

The mediator can help families discuss their concerns regarding an aging parent’s safety at home. An elder mediator can help with discussions over a parent’s ability to continue driving. Mediators can also help families decide if an aging parent needs a family member to take over finances. All of this is done without judgment so that families can make sound decisions and then plan to revisit situations in a few months to see if any of the plan needs changing. It’s a good way to prevent family squabbles and focus solely on the needs of an aging parent.

What Kind of Training do Mediators Receive?

Per AARP, most states lack regulations regarding elder care mediation. While many mediators have backgrounds in social work or law, it’s not a requirement. Therefore, you should ask questions before choosing a mediator. Ask about the mediator’s training, background, and credentials.

How Do You Find a Senior Mediator?

Talk to your parent’s doctor to get recommendations. Your local Agency on Aging may also have suggestions. Finally, call a senior care agency to see if they have a listing of mediators who specialize in elder care matters.

Once family members are in agreement on the care dad needs, hire caregivers to provide the necessary home care services. Remember that once you have caregivers helping out, you can always adjust care plans. If you decide at another mediation meeting that dad needs daily care instead of weekly care, just let the senior home care services agency know and schedules will be adjusted accordingly.